Aston Lukoye
A section of agribusiness firm Kakuzi Plc (NSE: KUKZ) shareholders have affirmed their
support for the company’s diversification and expansion plans following a familiarisation tour of the
farm’s operations in Murang’a County today.
As part of its business expansion and diversification strategy, Kakuzi, a superfoods producer, has
committed to executing a sustainability-anchored agricultural portfolio diversification agenda.
Kakuzi Plc Managing Director Chris Flowers said the agenda, with a capital outlay of Kshs 100 million
next year, focuses on key issues such as integrating Agricultural Technology (Ag-Tech), water
stewardship, measuring and reducing carbon emissions, reducing waste products, and hopefully,
introducing new commercial produce such as Blueberries and an expanded livestock range.
During the shareholders’ visit, Kakuzi Board Chairman Mr Nicholas Ng’ang’a said the firm had grown
beyond a farm enterprise and is now an integrated international agribusiness player. In its growth
journey and as part of a deliberate effort to deepen its investor relations, the firm, he said, will
continue to engage its shareholders through familiarisation tours and progressive engagements.
“Our shareholders are our primary stakeholders, and we’re proud they can come to visit us today and
understand how their investment is operating. We’re particularly proud to showcase our climate-smart
agriculture, which speaks to the sustainability of their investment portfolio,” Mr Ng’ang’a said.
On his part, Mr Flowers said: “Market diversification for Kakuzi is a key part of our strategy not only for
export but also for the growing domestic and regional markets. Having the combination of avocado,
macadamia, and hopefully, blueberries as export crops being sent to Europe, China, India, the Middle
East, America, Japan and the UK, as well as a strong domestic value addition range, we believe,
gives us the greatest opportunities to minimise shareholder risks and maximise returns.”
He added:
“The complexity we face today is greater than it was during the Covid Pandemic, Flowers
said. We are now dealing with new significant problems which again are beyond our control, such as
complex global logistics, caused by the closure of the Red Sea Shipping routes, and Climate Change
which is making agriculture far less predictable.”
The Kakuzi share register indicated that the number of shareholders grew to 1,395 as of 31
December 2023, up from 1,362 the previous year. The firm’s shareholder profile comprises 1,154
local individual investors with more than 8 million shares and 97 local institutional Investors with more
than 5.5 million shares, among others.
